Ten festival shows about getting hatched, matched or despatched...

In the latest of our preview articles about shows heading for the Edinburgh Fringe, here are ten about the major life milestones…

1.Tamar Broadbent: Plus One 

Musical comedian Tamar Broadbent has been away from the Fringe for a while to get married and have a baby – with pregnancy and motherhood the theme of her comeback shows. Songs will cover fertility tests, failed birth plans and trying to breastfeed, with great difficulty.  Broadbent is the only British woman to have ever been a main stage cast member at renowned Amsterdam-based US improv theatre Boom Chicago. But she also believed her childbirth group when they said best method of pain relief was ‘breathing’…

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 1pm, from August 7

2. Janine Harouni: This Is What You Waited For

Last time the London-based American comedian was at the Fringe in 2023 with her  award-nominated Man’oushe, she was heavily pregnant, reaching full term at the end of the festival. She even brought baby clothes, a car seat and a cot up to Edinburgh in case she gave birth, but made it home with her bump. Now she’s back to talk ‘marriage, parenting, and all the other wonderful milestones that slowly degrade your sleep and sanity’.

Monkey Barrel Comedy, 1.25pm, from August 11

3. Born Blue

Canadian musical comedian Wes McClintock choked on amniotic fluid and nearly died at birth, emerging a fetching shade of blue. In this debut, he wonders if this event changed his brain chemistry as he shares true stories from his life.

Greenside @ Riddles Court, 7.30pm

4. Mark Vigeant: The Best Man Show

One reviewer compared Los Angeles-based comedy actor Mark Vigeant to Robin Williams for the vigour of his performance, which is praise indeed. This show, following his very personal 2023 Edinburgh Fringe show Mark Pleases You, takes the form of a car-crash best-man speech coming from the groom’s brother

Assembly George Square, 10.20pm

See also Let The Best Man Win, a game-show format hosted by TikTok star Niall Gray as comics battle to deliver the ultimate best man speech, on at Just the Tonic Nucleus at 8.40pm from the 13th to 17th.  

5. Couplet: Honey Honey Moon Moon

Los Angeles musical comedy duo and real-life couple Marnina Schon and Micah O’Konis tied the knot earlier this year… although they had to find a new venue at short notice after their original choice burned down. They wrote a song about it, called rather directly: Our Wedding Venue Burned Down. The couple are both Jewish, genderqueer classically trained musicians who summed up their position with another song,  People Think We’re Straight. And this Edinburgh show is standing in as their honeymoon…

Assembly Rooms, 6.25pm

6. Grace Mulvey: Did You Hear We're All Going To Die?

The Irish love a good mourning, so here in her sophomore show, the Dublin-raised comedian and ‘Death Queen’ will teach audience ‘how not to be weird about loss’. It runs in the family, apparently, with a dad who casually reads his will over lunch at Yo! Sushi and a mum who takes a great funeral selfie…

Assembly George Square, 2.50pm

7. RIP Hannah Bitch-Cough-Ski (WIP)

You’ll remember Hannah Byczkowski from the first series of The Traitors, sharing the  £101,050 prize pot with two fellow Faithfuls. Either that or from the Ghost Huns podcast, whose creepy stories of the undead feed into this work in progress, all about death. In it she explores craft projects involving loved one's ashes, funeral faux pas and why she's not running from serial killers.

Just The Tonic at the Mash House, 8.35pm, from August 13. 

8. Dead Parent Society

Chris Graves – appropriate name that –  and Anna Gerber have something in common: dead parents, and split this hour talking about about grief, funerals and ‘the weird aftermath nobody prepares you for’. But they also promise a ‘refreshing lack of sentimentality’ with no life lessons or closure, just ‘deeply inappropriate [and] weirdly comforting jokes

Greenside @ Riddles Court, 7.30pm, from August 11

9. Brendan Tran: Hole In The Wall L’Hôpital

A alumnus of the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, pays tribute to his recently passed dad with this show, expressing his hope that talking and joking about the death of a loved one can help with healing. Speaking to the Miami New Times earlier this year, he said: ‘Processing my grief inevitably led to comedy. Experiencing my dad's loss caused such an overwhelming change in my life where I was faced with a ton of challenges, stresses, and emotions that were new to me, and the humour in those discoveries found me.’

Gilded Balloon, 7.40pm

10. Ryan Mold: Breaking the Mold

Another analysis of grief as Ryan Mold reflects on the hole left in his life by the death of his grandparents who brought him up, an absence especially keenly felt in trying to navigate adulthood without their guidance.This show is described as ‘a deeply personal, yet universally relatable journey through love, loss, and finding humour in the toughest moments.’

Laughing Horse@ The Hanover Tap, midday

Published: 9 Jul 2025